Lampholders

ABSTRACT

A lampholder on which a plurality of lamps can be mounted, in which a printed circuit board is used to make electrical connections to all the lamps in the lampholder from a single connection point of the board to which all the external connections can be made by a single connector having a plurality of contacts. The board may be mounted on the lampholder which may include integral reflectors and lamp sockets. On the printed circuit board there are mounted various contact blades for making electrical contact with the plug ends of lamps inserted into the sockets.

United States Patent 1 1 Di Salvo et al. 1451 O t, 2, 1973 LAMPHOLDERS 2,936,437 5/1960 Fraser et al 339 17 1) 2,690,55i 9/l954 Pettit 339/15] R X [751. lnvenmrsf P' Salvo; 3,314,042 4/1967 Gabrielian 339 17 1) x Gughelmm", both of Tun", Italy 3,544,950 12 1970 Lopez et a]. 339 17 1) [73] Assignee: Fiat Societa Per Azioni, Turin, Italy Primary Examiner-Marvin A. Champion [22] Ffled' 1972 Assistant Examiner-Terrell P. Lewis [21] App}. No.: 216,399 AttorneyRichard C. Sughrue et al.

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data [57] ABSTRACT Jan. 14, 1971 Italy 67119 A/7l A lampholder on which a plurality of lamps can be mounted, in which a printed circuit board is used to [52] 11.8. C1., 339/17 1), 317/101 CC, 339/119 L make electrical connections to all the lamps in the 339/176 L lampholder from a single connection point of the board 1511 Int. Cl. H05k 1 02, HOSk 1 I16 to which all the external connections can be made y [58] Field of Search 1. 317/101 cc, 101 c, a single connector having a plurality of Contacts. The 317/101; 339 17 1 ,17 1, 127 57,119 25 board may be mounted on the lampholder which may 147 R, 17, 176 include integral reflectors and lamp sockets. On the I 1 printed circuit board there are mounted various con- [56] References Cit d tact blades for making electrical contact with the plug UNITED STATES PATENTS ends of lamps inserted into the sockets. 1,325,865 12/1919 Shreeve 339/17 D 7 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures Patented Oct. 2, 1973 3,763,456

3 Sheets-Sheet l Patented Oct. 2, 1973 3,763,456

3 Sheets-Sheet :3

LAMPIIOLDERS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a lampholder for holding a plurality of lamps.

Embodiments of this invention find particular utility in connection with the tail lights, brake lights and flashing direction indicator lights situated at the rear of a motor vehicle.

In such lamps it is normal practice to fit each of two lampholder sockets, one per lamp, with separate connectors, one for each cable from a central distribution position. At least one of the two lamps usually has two filaments (combined tail lamp and brake lamp), and there is usually at least one return lead common to the two lamps, so that there are several connectors for each pair of lamps, and to each one of these connections a fitter has to connect, individually, its own electrical lead.

A typical connector of the previously known type comprises a terminal holder of plastics material fixed to a lamp socket, two or more terminals fixed to the holder, by riveting for example, and one or two contact blades fixed to the said holder and in electrical contact with the said terminals, which contact blades made electrical connection with the plug portion of a lamp fitted into the socket.

This previous arrangement is costly partly because of the necessity of having different terminal holders and contact blades for each lamp, and partly because of the fact that it is necessary to connect the appropriate leads separately to respective terminals, thus increasing assembly time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention there is provided a lampholder for a plurality of lamps such as motor vehicle lights having at least two lamp sockets, characterised in that thesockets are connected to a printed circuit board which carries at least one contact blade associated with each socket the contact blades being connected by conductive tracks of the printed circuit board to respective contact zones for making external electrical connections.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is one object of the invention to provide a multiple lampholder which can be assembled in less time than previously known lampholders.

It is another object of the invention to provide lampholders which can be made at less cost than that of previously known lampholders.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description, with reference to the accompanying drawings which is given purely by way of non restrictive example.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of a printed circuit board suitable for a lampholder having two sets of lamps for direction indicator lights and tail and stopping lights respectively;

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1, showing contact blades and lamp sockets assembled onto the board;

FIG. 3 is a view in longitudinal section along the line III III of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view along the line IV IV of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal section of a printed circuit board similar to that of FIG. I, assembled on to a pair of reflectors which have lampholder sockets incorporated; and

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the printed circuit board of FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. ll of the drawings, there is shown a printed circuit terminal board ll), of suitable rigid insulating material on which there is formed a plurality of copper conductor tracks 12, 14, 16 and 18. The copper tracks are tin coated, and, for protection, the whole board 10 is covered with an insulating varnish, except for a number of electrical contact zones 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28.

The zones 20 and 28 have two respective pairs of apertures 30 and 32 for fixing the respective sockets which will be described below. The zone 20 has a notch 34, and the zones 28 has an aperture 36, to receive respective locating tabs of the two sockets, which are also described below.

The contact zone 22 has a hole 40 and a slot 38 for the attachment of a contact blade which will be described below, and similarly the contact zone 28 has a pair of such hole and slot arrangement 42, 44 and 46, 48 for the attachement of a pair of contact blades which, again, will be described in greater detail below.

Finally, on either side of the contact zone 24 the printed circuit board 10 has two open ended slots 50 and 52 for locating a contact-holder clip of known type (not illustrated).

FIGS. 2 and 3 show various different views of the printed circuit board ll] of FIG. 1, fitted with two lampholder sockets 54 and 56 and also with a contact blade 58 associated with the socket 54 and with two contact blades 60 and 62 associated with the socket 56.

The socket 54 is held in place in the holes 30 by rivets 64 and the socket 56 is held in place in the holes 32 of the printed circuit board 10 by rivets 66. The contact blades 58, 60 and 62 are also fixed to the printed circuit board 10 by rivets, 68, and 72 respectively a tab such as the tabs 74 and 76 (shown in FIG. 3) of each blade being fitted in to the respective slots 38, 42 and 46 shown in FIG. 1. The blades 58, 60 and 62 project from their respective points of contact into the inside of the sockets, so as to offer resilientcontact zones 78, 80 and 82 for making electrical contact with the plug ends of respective lamps (not illustrated), inserted into the respective sockets.

A lampholder socket, such as, for example, the' socket 56, is shown in FIG. 4. The socket 56 consists of a tubular portion 84 having two L-shaped slots 85 for locating a bayonet type plug end of a lamp (not illustrated), and having a tab (not illustrated), made by cutting and folding back, which exerts a resilient resistance on the plug end of a lamp when it is inserted into the socket, to ensure a secure contact between the socket and the plug which forms one electrical contact of the lamp, in accordance with current practice. The socket 56 also has a further tubular portion 86 of larger diameter than the portion 84, which ends in a radial flange 88in the edge of which there are formed two fixing holes 90 and 92, and a projecting tab 94 for locating in the hole 36, in order to ensure the correct positioning of the socket 56.

On one side of the socket there is an opening 96 for insertion of the contact blades 60 and 62. The shape of the socket 54 is substantially the same as that of the socket 56 except that the tag for location in the notch 34 is differently positioned and the aperture in the side wall for allowing the passage of the contact blade 58 is smaller than'the corresponding aperture for allowing passage of the two contact blades 60, 62 of the socket 56.

FIGS. and 6 show another embodiment of a lampholder according to the invention, using a printed circuit board similar to that shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, except for the shaping of some of the contact zones and of the corresponding means of connection with the lamp. Moreover, in this embodiment the sockets are made of plastics material, and are incorporated with reflectors for the lamps. Two reflectors of metal covered plastics material 100, 102 are pressed out in one piece and each one is formed integrally with a socket 104 and 106 respectively. Each socket has two shaped slots 108, 110 for insertion of the bayonet connections of the plug of a lamp (not illustrated).

integrally formed with the reflectors 100, 102 there are two lugs 112, 114 for supporting a printed board 1 18. The board 118 bears contact blades 160, 178, similar to the blades 60, 78 of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, and it also bears second contact blades 120, 122, placed substantially at right angles to the board 118 and designed to press laterally against the plug ends of lamps inserted in respective sockets 108, 110, in order to establish a firm electric contact with the said plugs. The blades 120, 122 are riveted by rivets 124, 126, respectively to the board 118.

FIG. 6 shows the printed circuit board 118 of FIG. 5.

This board is similar to the board illustrated in FIG. 1,

except for the fact that the contact zones, 120 and 128 respectively, have only one hole 123, respectively, arranged on the longitudinal axis of the plate, for fixing the blades 121 and 122.

We claim:

1. A lampholder for holding a plurality of lamps, said lamp-holder comprising a support board, printed circuit means on said support board, at least two lamp sockets, conductor means connecting said lamp sockets with said printed circuit, a plurality of contact blades secured to said printed circuit means in alignment with said lamp socket on the same side of said board as said lamp sockets, said printed circuit means having a plurality of conductive tracks extending from said conductor means and said plurality of contact blades to a common location for connection with respective external cable terminals.

2. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein said conductor means includes a base portion of each of said lamp sockets and rivets for securing said base portions on said support board.

3. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein said conductor means are comprised of additional contact blades fixed on said printed circuit means.

4. A lampholder as set forth in claim 3 wherein at least one of said sockets is made of a plastic material.

5. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein said contact blades are positioned to resiliently engage against respective contacts carried on the ends of the plug portions of lamps inserted into the respective sockets.

6. A lampholder as set forth in claim 4 wherein at least one of said additional contact blades is arranged to exert a lateral force against an electrical contact carried on the side of the plug or the lamp.

7. A lampholder as set forth in claim 4 wherein reflector means are integrally connected with said plastic sockets. 

1. A lampholder for holding a plurality of lamps, said lampholder comprising a support board, printed circuit means on said support board, at least two lamp sockets, conductor means connecting said lamp sockets with said printed circuit, a plurality of contact blades secured to said printed circuit means in alignment with said lamp socket on the same side of said board as said lamp sockets, said printed circuit means having a plurality of conductive tracks extending from said conductor means and said plurality of contact blades to a common location for connection with respective external cable terminals.
 2. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein said conductor means includes a base portion of each of said lamp sockets and rivets for securing said base portions on said support board.
 3. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein said conductor means are comprised of additional contact blades fixed on said printed circuit means.
 4. A lampholder as set forth in claim 3 wherein at least one of said sockets is made of a plastic material.
 5. A lampholder as set forth in claim 1 wherein said contact blades are positioned to resiliently engage against respective contacts carried on the ends of the plug portions of lamps inserted into the respective sockets.
 6. A lampholder as set forth in claim 4 wherein at least one of said additional contact blades is arranged to exert a lateral force against an electrical contact carried on the side of the plug or the lamp.
 7. A lampholder as set forth in claim 4 wherein reflector means are integrally connected with said plastic sockets. 